1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a memory system, and more particularly, to a dual buffer memory system and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Along with development of mobile systems and various application systems, demands for a flash memory, which is a nonvolatile memory, and a memory system for controlling the flash memory are increasing. A memory system for controlling a flash memory includes a flash memory, a control circuit, and a buffer for temporarily storing data. Parameters which affect system performance in the memory system are specific write and read times of a flash memory, a data transmission time between the flash memory and a buffer, a data transmission time between the buffer and a host, etc.
However, since the specific write and read times of the flash memory are limited, the data transmission time between the flash memory and buffer and the data transmission time between the buffer and host must be reduced in order to improve the performance of a memory system. To reduce such data transmission times, a method which increases the widths of data buses or a method which increases operating frequencies of the flash memory and buffers can be used. However, these methods significantly increase chip areas of the flash memory and buffers, or there is a difficulty in applying these methods to a practical device due to a limitation of the manufacturing process.
When data is written to a flash memory in a memory system including one buffer, a host loads data in the buffer, the buffer loads the loaded data into the flash memory, the flash memory records the received data therein, and after a predetermined time has elapsed, the host again loads data in the buffer. Due to such operations, the data transmission time is long when data corresponding to a multiple of the capacity of the buffer is written to the flash memory, which deteriorates the system performance.
Embodiments of the invention address these and other limitations of the prior art.